There's Always One
by ChiefBandit
Summary: I changed up Criminal Minds a little. This is the story of three foster siblings Emily, Derek, and Spencer in High School. Alot about their family and Emily messing with bullies. Reviews are greatly loved!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

As Spencer stepped out of the mini van he looked around worriedly. He was in a parking lot full of cars but no people, but that didn't surprise him since he was almost an hour late. It was the second week of school but his foster dad hadn't enrolled him in time so this was going to be his first day. The old windows and red bricks of the old school building scared him and he stayed rooted to the spot. He had never been to a public school before, while in foster care he had always had a private tutor. He was slightly exited about the new things he would learn but had read enough books and heard enough stories to know High School was hard. He didn't mean Math, Science and subjects like that. He could handle those easy. (He was a genius after all) It was the fact that he was 12 years old and going into the tenth grade with people years older then him. The only thing that made him feel slightly better was that he was there with and going into the same grade as his foster siblings Emily and Derek.

"Move already!" said Derek as he pushed Spencer out of the way of the door, "I want to make it in the school before graduation!"

Emily got out of the van right after him and when she saw Spencer's expression she grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"It will be fine Spence. C'mon!" she said almost pulling him in the direction of the school trying to catch up with Morgan.

"Hey, kids! Do you want me to come help you get your schedules and find your classes?" yelled their foster dad Eric.

Emily sighed before yelling back, "Eric were fine! Go to work, we know you're already late!"

Eric smiled at Emily gratefully before getting back in his car. He still waited until they were in the school before he raced out of the parking lot. Emily smiled, Eric was one of the best foster parents she had ever had, even though he was a little disorganised and irresponsible at times. Eric had dark brown hair and brown eyes that sparkled when he was happy. He reminded Emily of a big kid. His wife Rose had been the serious and responsible one, but she had died a little more than a year before, Emily missed her greatly. Emily shook her head to get back to the present and looked down at Spencer. He was looking down, but he kept peeking to the sides to make sure nobody was coming.

"Spencer, high school is going to be fun; maybe we will even have some classes together!" She said trying to get him to stop looking petrified.

"Did you know that 282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month?" Spencer said checking down one of the halls they were passing.

"Kid, nobody will hurt you, if anyone even gets close to you I will beat them to a pulp, got it?" said Morgan clenching his fists. Emily saw the seriousness of Morgan's rage and gave him a look; they couldn't get in a fight the first day. Even though the kids weren't related by blood they were very close and Emily and Derek were very protective of the littlest one, Spencer.

"But that's not going to happen Spencer," said Emily opening the office door and guiding Spencer in first. Emily looked around the room; it was small and extremely crowded. There were 4 desks each covered and paper, there were a couple chairs in the corner, and potted plants placed in various places around the room.

At the closest desk sat a plump lady with red hair who was staring intently at her computer screen. Derek coughed loudly to get her attention but she didn't even give an indication she heard them.

"Excuse me miss.." Emily looked around for a name and found it on the computer, "Miss Garcia." said Emily loudly and when the lady looked up she continued, "We have an appointment with the principal, is there somewhere we could wait?" she asked politely.

"Well aren't you kids adorable! Just go straight into his office sweetie, down that hall first door on your left!" she said motioning with one of her hands. When Emily turned back to say thanks Ms Garcia had already turned her attention back to the computer.

With Derek leading and Emily pulling Spencer by his hand they made their way into the hallway. When they reached the door Derek paused for a second then knocked.

"Come in!" shouted a voice from inside. Derek looked back at Emily and Spencer before slowly pushing open the door.

All three of them looked in and saw a tall man with Jet black air and stern brown eyes. He looked the kids over before he spoke.

"You must be the new foster kids, come have a seat I have your schedules right here."

All three kids sat down on individual chairs, unconsciously seating Spencer in the middle. The kids sat down awkwardly trying to look anywhere but into the eyes of the intimidating man.

"I am your principal Aaron Hotchner." He said pausing. He went directly to the point of their meeting and turned to Spencer, "Spencer, you will do normal classes in the morning. I managed to put you in the classes with Emily. In the afternoon you will go to the guidance office for special classes and testing." He then turned to face all of the kids, "Period 1 hasn't ended yet, I expect you to make it for the last twenty minutes. You can pick up your schedules from Ms Garcia. Dismissed." He said and then tended to the paperwork on his desk.

The kids sat there for a second before realizing that that was their cue to leave. They slowly got out of their seats and walked out to the office. Ms Garcia seemed to be ready this time and smiled while she gave them their schedules.

"Wow what a fun guy." said Derek once they got into the hallway. Emily rolled her eyes and looked at her schedule.

"I have Science, Geography, Lunch, English then Gym." she read, "So I have Science and Geo with Spence, anything with you Derek?"

"Uhh.. Gym! Great now I can beat you at sports in front of a whole class!" He said grinning.

"You forgot the word TRY Morgan!" She laughed shoving him playfully. She looked at her schedule again and grabbed Spencer's hand, " Come on Spence let's find room 315."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When the duo entered the science room everyone went silent. The teacher had been explaining something about the periodic table but stopped.

"Can I help you two?" she asked eyeing them.

"Yeah, we are joining this class," Emily said handing the teacher a note. The teacher read the note quickly and then looked them over again.

"I'm Mrs. Little, why don't you introduce yourselves to the class?" she said motioning to the front of the class. Emily let go of Spencer's hand and had to almost push him to the front of the room. Emily stood behind him and introduced them to the class, not sure if

Spencer would talk at all.

"Hi my name is Emily, and this is my brother Spencer." Spencer looked up from the ground at the class. They were all staring at him. His face turned red and he looked back to the ground, then the teacher made it worse.

"Kids Spencer is very special, he has exceptional IQ! He will be joining our class for the time being! Isn't that exiting?" Emily looked around the room and didn't feel that exited was a word to describe the kids staring at Spencer. She would compare them to dogs looking at a new toy. This wasn't going to go well.

"How old is he?" shouted someone from the back of the class. Emily looked up at the smirking face of the typical bully. He was heavily built and had brown eyes with hair to match. He didn't look too intelligent, but he was strong and obviously willing to speak out. She made a mental note to watch out for him.

"Josh raise your hand! But, that is a good question, how old are you

Spencer?" said the teacher with curiosity. Emily couldn't answer for him this time. She jabbed him in the back willing him to talk. He got the message and said very quietly,

"I'm 12."

"Pardon, Spencer? I couldn't hear you," Emily clenched her teeth and wondered if Mrs. Little was embarrassing Spencer on purpose.

"I'm 12." He said louder but his voice shook slightly.

"Can we sit down now?" asked Emily impatiently.

"Yes, there are two free desks at he back," she said, "Here are some sheets and notes of what we are working on right now."

Emily grabbed the notes and quickly directed Spencer to their new desks. During the rest of class people gave them weird stares. But halfway through the class Spencer got comfortable enough to watch the teacher while she explained her lesson.

Emily was less worried about Spencer in the second period. He was calm enough to tell her statistics the whole walk to Geography. When they got into the room Emily gave the teacher the note and sat down quickly to avoid another introduction to the class. Spencer was still going on when they sat down at the back of the classroom

"..and every year 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced, isn't that cool?" continued Spencer looking at Emily for an answer.

"Yupp, really cool Spencer." responded Emily while she looked over the class. She recognised two or three people from their science class, including Josh she noted unhappily. She really hoped that there were no problems but doubted that.

The class went on normally until they worked started talking about birth and abortion rates in Canada. Josh hadn't been paying attention so the teacher, Miss Hills, asked him a question.

"Josh, do you think Canada should cover abortions in the OHIP?" the teacher asked.

"No." said Josh after he thought about it.

"Can you go to the front of the class and explain?" Josh obediently got up and stood in front of the class.

"I think that they should take it away because abortions are wrong because it's killing a baby. If they stop supporting it I think people will stop getting the operation done."

"Does everyone agree? Everyone who agrees put your hands up." said Miss Hills looking over the class. Almost everyone put their hands up, "Okay hands down, does anyone disagree?" One hand shot up in the air. Emily slapped her forehead with her hand; this was not going to go well.

"Why don't you explain Spencer." asked the teacher looking at him curiously for she hadn't heard him speak since he walked in. Spencer took a big breath before he started.

"Well Ms. Hills, taking away abortion centers wouldn't stop people from getting abortions. Every time anyone has sex with a condom there is still a 98% chance of getting pregnant. In Canada, between 1998 and 2005 there were 1,811,707 legal abortions. That's not counting the illegal abortions. There would be a great increase in illegal abortions. If we were to take away all of the options studies show there would be a great increase in children in the foster care system and.." He stopped when Emily stepped on his foot. He looked up and saw almost everyone staring at him with amazement; some even had their mouths open. The teacher was speechless and Josh was glaring.

Spencer's face turned red and he sat down trying to hide, he hadn't realized he had stood up during his speech.

"O-okay Spencer, let's continue with the lesson." Miss Hills appeared to be a little shaken but the class continued normally aside from the occasional stare and Josh's constant glares. 'Good job Spencer, you made an enemy on your first day of school' thought Spencer sarcastically. Emily's thoughts weren't much different.

When they walked out of class Emily turned to Spencer and sighed, "Spencer I'm going to go to the washroom, can you stay out of trouble for 2 minutes?" Emily was only half joking. Spencer put his head down and mumbled something she took as a yes. "Meet me out front, Eric gave us money to go out to lunch on our first day, Morgan might meet us there." She said as she turned away already looking for a washroom.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Spencer walked outside with his head down. Wow. Only halfway through his first day of High School and he had already messed up. When he walked outside he walked straight over to the side of the school and leaned on the wall out of the view of the front doors. He watched the browning grass sway in the soccer field. The cold September wind kept everyone else inside, but he kind of liked the quiet. High School was loud. He liked the way the grass danced back and front almost soundlessly.

He kneeled down to tie his shoe when a shadow appeared over him. He looked up into the face of Josh and a boy he didn't know. He immediately straightened and took a step back into the wall.

"H-hey Josh." He said nervously hoping Emily would hurry up.

"Hey Spencer." Josh spat his name out mockingly, "What are you doing out here alone? No friends?" Josh's friend laughed as he stepped closer to Spencer. Out of fear Spencer said the first thing that popped into his mind,

"Did you know that a study showed 87% of school shootings were from kids who had been picked on or bullied and wanted revenge?" Josh grabbed the front of his shirt and pushed him against the wall.

"Are you threatening me?" he growled menacingly. Spencer's face turned white out of fear and he started stammering.

"N-no, I was s-simply saying that-"

"Shut up!" yelled Josh hitting him against the wall again.

After Emily had gone to the washroom she had decided to find her locker to leave her bag in. When she walked out the front doors and didn't see Spencer. She checked her watch. It had been 8 minutes; he couldn't possibly of found trouble in 8 minutes. She stopped suddenly when she heard someone yell around the corner,

"I said SHUT UP smart ass!" yelled a harsh voice. Emily rounded the corner quickly towards the sound and saw that Josh had Spencer pinned against the wall with another boy watching from his side.

"Hey!" Emily yelled to distract them as she got in front of Spencer and shoved Josh back. Josh stumbled a step before he caught himself. Emily didn't give him a chance to react, "What is your problem!" she yelled into his face. She stood up straight and looked him straight in the eye; they were almost the same height. When he recovered anger flickered through his eyes but he started laughing.

"Aww, Spencer's big sister is here to protect him! How cute!" His friend joined in to the laughing.

"Get near him again and I'll kick your ass Josh." She said through clenched teeth. Josh and his friend stopped laughing immediately. Josh looked her over then answered casually,

"You don't scare me. If you think I'm above hitting girls, I'm not."

"You don't scare me either, I am above hitting the mentally disabled, but in your case I'll make an exception." She retorted and before he could answer she added, "Leave Spencer and I alone and we won't have any problems." Josh took a step closer. They were so close that their noses were almost touching.

"Don't threaten me." He said with an icy calm, "If you hadn't noticed you're outnumbered, two to one.. and a half" he added with a mocking smirk. They heard another pair of footsteps come towards the encounter. Neither Josh nor Emily looked to see who it was afraid to give the other the upper hand.

"What's going on here?" Derek's voice boomed in the silence.

"I got this Derek" said Emily not turning her head, still locked in a glare with Josh.

"Doesn't look like it form my point of view." Derek addressed the whole group, "What's going on here?" Josh broke his glare with Emily to look at Derek. Derek wasn't big but he was muscled and intimidating enough for Josh to not want to risk a fight.

"Alex and I were just telling Spencer to watch himself. A lot could happen to a small little guy," said Josh intertwining his words with his threat.

"That's fine Josh, but I think Spencer will be fine. He has Emily and I are looking out for him." responded Derek casually making sure Josh understood where he stood in this.

"Well, we have things to do. See you later Spencer. Emily." Josh walked past Emily pushing her with his shoulder and almost knocking her over. Once Josh and Alex left Derek turned to Emily.

"What the hell Emily! You can't take on two guys with Spencer!" started Derek, getting angry. He didn't his little brother or sister getting hurt.

"Don't lecture me Derek. They had him pinned to a wall I had to do SOMETHING." She snapped at him. She turned swiftly on her heel to go check on Spencer. Derek decided not to push it any further knowing that's what he would have done too.

While Emily had been talking to Derek Spencer had checked himself over. Aside from some dust he wasn't in bad shape. He didn't have any cuts or scrapes although he might have some bruises in the morning.

"You okay Spence?" asked Emily as she looked him over quickly.

"I'm fine, just some bruises." He mumbled in response.

"Only you could almost get yourself killed in 8 minutes Spencer." She joked lightly ruffling his hair.

"It's not my fault he was waiting for me! Did you know that 1 out of 4 kids is bullied? That's 25% of the population of the school!" babbled Spencer trying to put the incident behind him.

"Spencer, Derek and I are going to do all in our power to make sure you are not that one, okay?" said Emily reassuringly. Spencer nodded slightly embarrassed; he didn't like being the one that had to be looked after.

"Can we just go to lunch now?" suggested Spencer trying to change the subject.

"Sure thing, Spence, Let's go get some pizza!" She sang grabbing his hand and walking towards the sidewalk. "Come on Derek!"

"Hey Emily did you know that there are almost 70,000 pizzerias in the United States alone?" Emily smiled and answered,

"I guess we'll have a hard time choosing a place then, won't we Spencer."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After helping Spencer find the Guidance office Emily looked at her schedule. English was in room 215. She walked down the crowded hallway trying not to get pushed around too much by all the students. She made a note to take a different route next time, or come earlier. When she entered room 215 she looked around quickly before going to give the note to the teacher. It was a typical English classroom with a big desk sitting in front of the chalkboard facing the student's desks. The student's desks were small without a shelf inside and were placed in groups of two. There were posters about creative writing and character traits posted to hide the cracks in the old wall. Along the far wall was an old counter stacked with books of all shapes and sizes.

The teacher was a man in his late 50's with greying hair and a thoughtful look on his face when he read the note. He seemed like a good English teacher to Emily. He looked strict but the light in his brown eyes suggested that he knew how to make class interesting and how to have fun. He leaned back in his chair and looked around the room. After everyone had entered he stood up and Emily was surprised to see how tall he was.

"Okay class, today we are changing spots. Everyone grab your things and line up at the front of the class." He remembered Emily and gestured to her quickly, "This is our new student Emily. Now hurry up and get to the front!"

The students collected their things slowly and all stood in a line at the chalkboard. The teacher clapped his hands together.

"Okay." He looked over the group quickly, "You, you over there." He said motioned with his hands. And that's how it went. He chose two students at a time and pointed to a pair of desks then moved on. At first Emily thought it was random but after watching him choose she realized he was thinking carefully before he chose each pair. He had gotten through half the class when he motioned to Emily and the blonde girl beside her.

"You two back corner." Emily and the girl obediently grabbed their stuff and went to the back. Emily chose the seat on the edge of the classroom, wanting to have enough room to think. She looked over and observed her partner; the girl was petite and blonde with blue eyes. She reminded Emily slightly of a doll. The girl was wearing a blue top and a skirt, but neither was cut too short or too low like most of the girls at the school. The girl turned when she realized Emily was looking at her.

"Hi my name is JJ." She said politely smiling.

"Emily."

"Are you new here? I haven't seen you before and I'm usually good with faces," continued JJ trying to make conversation. Emily was silent but JJ waited patiently for an answer. Once Emily realized she was going to have to answer she chose her words carefully.

"Yes, I'm new here with my brothers Spencer and Derek." She answered.

"Oh that's really cool! I wish my brothers went to this school. It must be so nice to go to a new school with people you know and trust.." JJ looked of wistfully and Emily noticed that she didn't have to say much to have a conversation with JJ. Her blonde partner did most of the talking. JJ seemed to have noticed the talking had stopped so she asked another question,

"What are your brothers like?" she seemed merely curious.

"Well my brother Derek is a pain in the butt.." she smiled as she thought of how she was going to crush him in gym, "but I love him, and he's a great guy. My little brother Spencer is really smart and knows statistics about almost anything, although nobody really listens to them most of the time." She found herself talking for a while. JJ was an easy person to talk to.

The two girls talked for the rest of the class. JJ had two older brothers who had both moved out and married. She loved to play soccer and wanted to be on the Student council this year. She had a fear of dogs but loved all other animals. Emily held her breath after she told JJ about Spencer being a genius at 12 but she didn't need to worry because JJ was amazed. JJ thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to meet Spencer. Both girls were disappointed when the bell rang at the end of the period.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow!" smiled JJ as she left.

"Yeah, bye!" Emily picked up her things and left. They hadn't noticed that their teacher was sitting at the desk smiling about bringing the two girls together.

"You done good Rossi." Said the teacher to himself before he took a big gulp of coffee.

Emily changed into her gym uniform quickly and looked into the mirror. The ensemble consisted of a white shirt with the schools name on it and blue shorts that went down to her knees. It wasn't the most flattering thing ever but it was perfect for crushing Derek with. She smiled evilly before running out of the change room to meet the gym teacher.

A while later Derek and Emily sat beside each other outside on the grass. The teacher was explaining the rules of soccer. Emily was really exited; soccer was one of her favourite sports. Derek was a little nervous; him and Emily were pretty equal in this sport so he might not win. He decided to tease her anyway.

"So Ems, ready to get crushed in soccer?" he nudged her playfully.

"Hey Derek, ready to come back to reality?" she smiled back.

"I'm going to win this hands down Emily, don't get your hopes up."

"Five dollars says my team gets more goals then yours." She challenged raising her eyebrow to see if he would accept.

"Really because my 5$ thinks my team will kick your teams-"

"Derek. Do you have something you want to share with the class?" asked the gym teacher when she noticed he was talking.

"No sir."

"Okay, I want you and Miss Chatty to stop talking back there while I'm explaining. Actually Derek why don't you come up here and be a team captain." The teacher motioned to her left and Derek got up and stood there waiting. "Who wants to be the other team captain?" Emily's hand shot up right away. He motioned to her and she got up and stood next to Derek.

"Okay choose your teams." Said the teacher while he started doing the attendance.

"Ladies first," said Derek motioning for Emily to go first.

Emily looked over the class quickly. She automatically crossed out all the girls and guys without proper shoes. She chose a tall guy with brown hair that hung slightly in his eyes. Derek chose someone he met during first period. Next Emily chose a sporty looking girl and Derek chose a guy who looked like a typical jock. They went on choosing until the last person. The teams each went to a side of the field and Emily sorted out the team. She made herself centre forward and the brown haired boy and the sporty girl were to her left and right. She learned the boys name was Jake and the girl was Kathy. She brought her team into a group huddle.

"Okay, we need a name. I vote for team Kick-Ass, any other ideas?" she said looking at the group.

"I'm fine with that." Said Kathy smiling; there was a chorus of agreements from within the group.

"Okay, Let's do this! Go team Kick-ass!" cheered Emily as they broke apart the huddle. The team went into there positions and Emily went to the centre of the field. Derek, who was the other centre forward, was smirking at her.

"Ready to lose 5$?" he said grinning from ear to ear.

"Nope." She responded as the coach kicked the ball to her, "You want first ball?"

"As I said, ladies first"

Emily looked to see if Jake and Kathy were ready and then took off. She got around Derek before he realized she started. She got a couple feet before she heard him hot on her heels. She passed the ball to Jake and ran around closer to the net. She watched as Jake passed to Kathy and they started taking it closer to the net. Kathy kicked it to Emily who ran around a girl with blonde hair who was picking at her nails and to the goalie. She looked at the goalie; a tough looking guy with black hair and a determined look on his face. She faked to the right but kicked the ball into the left corner.

She watched holding her breath as the ball hit the post and rolled into the net. She let out a whoop of joy and jumped into the air. She highfived Jake and Kathy as she walked back to the starting positions. She smiled mischievously as she passed Derek,

"Hey Derek, can I have my money in ice cream form?" she asked in an innocent voice.

"Sure, dumped on your head or in the face?" he asked with an equally innocent tone. Emily stuck out her tongue and got back into her position.

The game went on the almost whole period but no more goals were scored. The teams were almost equal. When there was 15 minutes left the gym teacher, Mr Ryans, blew his whistle. When everyone started to walk back Emily ran with the ball towards the net. Derek saw what she was doing and ran after her. When he was a couple feet behind her he jumped and tackled her to the ground. She fell to the ground with an 'OOF' before she started laughing.

"Trying to cheat I see, I guess this means I win." Said Derek grabbing the ball out of her hands and standing up.

"In your dreams Derek."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

That night the kids sat around the table happily. Derek was stuffing his face with pizza, Spencer was using a knife to cut his pizza up into tiny pieces and Emily was telling Eric about her day.

"..and then I kicked the ball to the left and got the only goal!" enthused Emily taking a bite of her pizza.

"Wow, how was Derek?" asked Eric looking at the boy whose mouth was too full to talk. Emily seeing Derek predicament smiled and answered for him,

"Well he tried his best, but Derek, being Derek kept tripping over the ball and falling into the mu- Hey!" she stopped when a piece of crust hit her in the face. She looked innocently over at Derek but her eyes were mischievous.

"Stop making things up." said Derek but with his mouth was still full so it sounded more like ' Shtop markin' fings sup' Eric laughed with Emily then turned to look at Spencer.

"So how was your day?" asked Eric trying to include Spencer. Sometimes when other people were joking around Spencer would tune out.

"Well, I had my morning classes with Emily that were fun," he edited the part about Josh and lunch, "and then we went out for pizza at lunch. During the afternoon I went to guidance and did some tests. The teacher there, Miss Campbell, is really nice."

"Make any friends?" Spencer was silent so Emily used this as an opportunity to talk again.

"Well, Spencer and I didn't really talk to anyone in Science and Geography, but I sat beside a really nice girl in English named JJ and there's a girl named Kathy and a guy named Jake in gym that seem really nice." She stopped and took a breath. She looked at the clock,

"Oh no! It's seven already! Were going to miss CSI!" Emily jumped out of her seat with her plate and ran into their living room to turn on the TV. The others followed slowly but they were soon all seated in the living room. It was a family tradition to watch the show every Wednesday night.

Derek and Eric were each sitting on an end of their old brown couch with Spencer squished in between them. Emily was lying on her stomach on the ground watching the show intently. Derek looked around the room; this was his favourite place in the house. There was a small TV set in one corner with couch facing it. The room wasn't big enough to fit much else but Derek thought it was cozy. He liked the brown walls and the pictures of horses and dogs on the walls.

The next day Derek was distracted. So when Derek's math teacher asked him a question he didn't respond right away. His thoughts were a couple classrooms over. He was hoping that everything was going okay for Spencer and Emily, with Josh in their first two periods. He hated not being able to look out for them.

He was so deep in thought that he only snapped out of it when his friend Mike, whom he had met the day before, jabbed him in the ribs. He looked up to see the teacher looking at him expectantly and the whole class staring at him.

"Well, Mr Derek?" asked the teacher, not for the first time he guessed.

"Sorry Miss can you please repeat the question?" he asked politely while checking the board to see what they were doing.

"I was asking you if you could simplify the equation on the board, 8n+5j-2n+4" she repeated.

"Umm, would that be 6n+5j+4 Miss?" he said doing the math quickly in his head. He wished she would move on to the next student.

"Okay, as I was saying previously.." the teacher continued and Derek started to worry about Emily and Spencer again.

After class Derek started to put away his books when Mike put his hand on Derek's shoulder.

"Hey man, you seem really out of it, you okay?" he asked lightly.

"Yeah I'm fine, just tied." relied Morgan trying to smile reassuringly. Mike didn't look much into the answer so he just asked what was on his mind. Derek liked the fact that Mike was always so direct.

"Hey Derek, Me, George, Alec and a bunch of other guys are playing football at lunch and I was wondering if you wanted to go. It's going to be the second half of lunch," asked Mike really hoping Derek would play. He liked Derek and after seeing him play soccer yesterday he was certain he wanted Derek on his side for football.

"Hey, do you mind if my sister plays?" he knew that Emily would love to play football and secretly wanted to keep an eye on her. He figured Spencer would come and watch too. He was reminded vaguely of the expression 'kill two birds with one stone'.

"Umm.. I guess.." mumbled Mike slightly surprised. The girls at the school usually watched and cheered on the teams or didn't show up.

"Okay, see you then" said Derek checking his phone to see if Emily had texted him. When he saw she hadn't he wrote her a message asking where she and Spencer were going for lunch. She responded just as he walked out of the classroom saying she was going to the cafeteria.

Emily walked into the cafeteria with Spencer and looked around. The room was huge with 3 rows of 2 tables on each side of the cafeteria. The walls had huge paintings on them with lots of colours, but she didn't look close enough to see what they were of. She looked for an empty table and found none; all of the tables were full of students laughing and eating their lunches. There were a few seats here and there but she didn't really want to sit with strangers. She was debating on going to sit outside when she saw someone wave at her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw JJ. She nodded to Spencer and they walked over to where JJ was and sat down at the end of the table.

Emily looked around the table. There were 3 girls and 2 guys not including JJ. Nobody but JJ and the girl next to her paid them any attention. The girl had short brown hair and big brown eyes with glasses. She looked fit and Emily guessed she probably played soccer with JJ since they were looking at a team photo. Once Emily was seated JJ introduced her to the brunette.

"Emily, this is my friend Claire, Claire this is Emily." Said JJ motioning with her hands to each girl.

"Hey," mumbled Claire smiling shyly.

"Hey Claire," said Emily happily trying to make the girl feel more comfortable, "Guys this is my little brother Spencer." She gestured to Spencer who had been preoccupied with opening the plastic container that contained his sandwich and looked up when he heard his name.

"Awww you're so adorable Spencer!" gushed JJ, which made him blush then look down at his lap. Emily noted his discomfort and changed the subject.

"So what are you guys looking at?" she asked peering at the picture. JJ explained that in was last years soccer picture. JJ had started telling the story of how they had won the finals when Emily's phone started ringing.

"Oops one sec." She apologized picking up her phone and checking who it was. "What do you what Derek?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to play football second half of lunch."

"With who?"

"A bunch of guys from the football team, Mike and Me. Maybe more people I don't know."

"Count me in." She found herself smiling in anticipation of playing football in a real field with more players then just the kids around her block and Derek.


	6. Chapter 6

After talking some more and finding out the details Emily shut her phone.

"Who wants to go play football?" she asked excitedly. Spencer hid his face in the book he was reading and JJ told Emily she didn't really play football but she would come and watch.

"Then it's settled, let's go guys!" The two got up but Spencer stayed seated staring at his book. He continued reading trying not to be noticed, "Come on Spencer! You don't even have to play, you can watch with JJ!" whined Emily not wanting to miss this game.

"Did you know that 21% of traumatic brain injuries among children in the United States are associated with injuries during participation in sports and recreational activities?" asked Spencer closing the book he had just finished. Emily slammed her palm into her face so JJ decided to try a different tactic.

"Hey Spencer, why don't we go sit outside and read, we don't even need to watch the football game. You can tell me all about the book you're reading!" said JJ using the voice she used with toddlers. Spencer looked at them then the book before he looked down at his shoes and responded.

"Okay.."

Emily found the football field very quickly and went to join a team. She got a lot of sceptical and weird looks, but after they started playing and saw how well she played the looks stopped. Emily was on a team with Derek, Mike, Jake and 5 other boys she didn't know. Derek and Emily learned very quickly that the football games here didn't really have any boundaries, rules, or definite positions. There was a lot of tackling which Derek enjoyed participating but Emily avoided unless necessary; she didn't want a trip to the emergency room. She was by far one of the smallest players and being crushed by guys twice her size wasn't appealing.

Halfway through the game Emily and Jake were rotated off and laid on the grass beside the field panting after running so hard.

"You play a weird game of football here," said Emily between breaths.

"Or maybe you play the weird game and this is completely normal." responded Jake smirking. Emily rolled onto her side and propped her head up with her hand.

"Maybe, but my game has strategy and I'm the fastest runner and best dodger so this results is my team winning the game."

"Really? Girls don't usually play here," said Jake sitting up and looking at her.

"Well, you're talking to one of the best football players in my neighbourhood. Girls AND guys." she responded looking over onto the field where Derek was tackling a guy twice his size.

"Maybe we could use that strategy here and win this, I bet Joe 20$ we would win." he said frowning for a second. So far they were losing. Badly.

"Awe that sucks, okay. I have a plan, you can throw far right?" when he nodded she continued, "If I stand over there and you can pass me the ball and I'll have an open field. The other team keeps going for the left side so they are leaving the right side open, so if you pass it to me on the right I will be able to run it all the way to the end." She motioned and pointed with her hands when she spoke.

"That seems like a good plan... for a girl." he smirked and Emily punched him in the arm. They both started laughing and Emily laid back down into the grass to stare at the clouds.

"Well, this girl will get half of the money if her plan works."

"Imagine I was that nice." Jake said sarcastically and Emily looked over her shoulder to see him smiling.

"No deal then." she responded looking back up at the sky. He thought about it for a minute before responding.

"How about I buy you a cookie at the caff tomorrow?"

"Chocolate chip?"

"Fine."

"A big cookie?"

"Pfft, a small cookie!"

"Big."

"Small."

"Big."

"Medium."

"Big."

"Fine! I will buy you a big chocolate chip cookie tomorrow at lunch, happy?" he said trying to make his tone exasperated but his smile was giving him off.

"Very." responded Emily pushing herself up off the grass, "Let's go play some football!"

The rest of the game went really well. Emily and Jake's plan worked twice before the other team caught on and started to cover the field more. Jake and Emily changed their plan twice and had gotten 4 or 5 touchdowns when the other team realized whom the real players were. After that Emily and Jake were the main targets for tackling.

Five minutes to the bell Emily and Jake decided to go for their original plan. Emily waited in the wings and Jake got the ball and threw it to her, but the other team was ready; when Emily turned around to run she got tackled to the ground. She curled herself around the ball underneath him so nobody could grab it. A bunch more guys started jumping on top and then someone in the distance shouted,

"Dog pile!" Soon there was a pile or 8 to 10 guys on top of her and her tackler. Jake and Derek came running over worriedly looking for her in the pile. Derek turned to Jake and then looked back at the pile.

"Please don't tell me she's under that." he groaned and ran over the mass of bodies. Jake watched Derek hurry to try and get people off the pile before he came over to help.

"Guys! Off!" shouted Derek in such a voice a bunch of the guys clumsily got up. After most of the guys were off they saw her still curled around the ball at the bottom. Jake and Derek made their way over to her and each grabbed one of her arms to help her up. She coughed twice and stood up straight. Before either could ask if she was all right she took off towards the other end of the field. When she got there she slammed the ball down onto the ground and shouted,

"THAT'S how you play football ladies!" Derek slammed the palm of his hand into his face and Jake started laughing. Most of the other guys on the team either looked shocked, confused or impressed. Jake went over to collect his 20$ from Joe while Derek ran over to Emily.

"Did you see that? Derek I was-"

"Don't EVER do that again Emily! You could have gotten crushed or hurt and then.." Derek continued but Emily wasn't really paying attention. She looked over to the stands to see JJ giving her the thumbs up and a couple of girls looking at her with disgust. She looked back over to Derek who was still blabbing on about god knows what.

"Hey Derek," she said cutting him off.

"Yes Emily...?" he said cautiously.

"I'm sorry I got your panties in a bunch but if you keep worrying your going to go prematurely grey." she smirked and he smiled back tightly.

"Fine, but next time your watching." he called as she started to walk away.

"Imagine!" she yelled over her shoulder rolling her eyes. Derek made a promise to himself that tomorrow he was going to keep a better eye on her; if she wasn't going to sit out for football, he was going to go around the field making sure she didn't get hurt.


	7. Chapter 7

Emily walked back into the school with JJ and Spencer. She and JJ were laughing and talking while Spencer just walked quietly.

"Hey, Jay I'm going to go to the washroom to wash my hands, I'll meet you in English." she said showing her hands covered in dirt and then turned to Spencer to ruffle his hair, "Bye Spence!" Emily walked away laughing while Spencer fixed his hair and mumbled some statistic about lice and dirt.

Emily pushed open the washroom door and looked around; it was a room with 4 stalls two sinks and 2 mirrors, it was recently painted a light pink and smelled like paint. She went up to the sink and started to wash her hands. She looked into the mirror and saw someone approaching her from behind. She turned around to see a girl with blonde hair with pink streaks glaring at her. She was flanked by two girls who looked almost the same but with different colored hair. One of them, who was a brunette, was leaning against a stall door and the other, a redhead, was blocking the way out. She realized she recognized these girls from the football game; they had been sitting in the stands watching.

Emily decided to not acknowledge them and dried her hands before turning around.

"Can I help you?" she asked raising her eyebrow deciding to play tough.

"Nope." the blonde said making a popping sound for the 'p'.

"Well then, nice meeting you, but I've got to go to English." she said but the girl still stood in her way looking her over.

"I want you to stay away from the Jake." the girl said, Emily admired that she didn't beat around the bush but was still shocked.

"Jake-who?" she asked trying to figure it out if she knew any Jake's besides the one in her Science and Gym class. She couldn't think of any so she assumed it was he.

"You know who." the girl practically spat in her face, "Stay away from him."

"Why is that?" Emily knew she was surrounded by theses girls, but honestly found this so stupid she wanted to know why.

"He's my boyfriend and I don't want him hanging around with you."

"You don't even know me." countered Emily.

"Doesn't matter." the girl concluded.

"Does to me," this girl was starting to piss Emily off so she decided to fight back, "Since you have no valid reason I have no reason not to be friends with Jake. Frankly, who do you think you are telling me who I can't be friends with? Maybe now I will go out of my way TO be friends with Jake." Emily had the satisfaction of seeing the girls jaw drop slightly before she passed her, pushed the girl at the door aside and left.

Emily left the bathroom thinking about how much trouble she probably just caused herself but then smiled evilly thinking 'This might make things fun.'

Emily walked into English a couple minutes late thanks to the encounter but got off easily. She just mumbled an apology to Mr. Rossi and sat down. He was a pretty cool teacher and let her get away with it. When people stopped looking and the teacher continued his lesson JJ asked what had taken so long.

"Do you know a bottle blonde girl with pink steaks?" asked Emily not answering JJ's question.

"Kelly? Does she have blue eyes?" asked JJ.

"Yeah sounds like her, know anything about her?" pried Emily trying to find out anything about her potential enemy.

"She used to be in my old school, she's the stereotypical cheerleader; rich, pretty, has a group of followers, controlling, dating one of the football stars, Jake, doesn't like it when things don't go her way. All in all I wouldn't cross her." Recited JJ and then realized Emily was biting her lip unsurely. It suddenly clicked in JJ's mind, "What did you do?"

"Well.. I might have told her off.." started Emily but stopped when JJ groaned. "What? I can deal with it; she's just a girl on her high horse. She needs someone to knock her down."

"Out of everyone in the school THAT'S who you pick to fight with?" moaned JJ exasperated, then she turned to Emily, "Emily just back down, you really don't need Kelly as an enemy ESPECIALLY on only your second day of school!"

"Technically she picked the fight, and I'm not backing down." JJ rolled her eyes and knew it was hopeless; even after only knowing Emily for a day she knew that she was stubborn and had her pride.

Later that day Emily sat beside Derek and Mike in gym class. The gym teacher was explaining how they were going to play basketball. Emily looked around and realized one of Kelly's friends, the brunette, was in this class. She poked Mike in the arm.

"Who's she?" she asked motioning with her hand, "Brunette at the front, pink running shoes."

"Uh.. that's Amber, one of Jakes girlfriends friends." He said and looked at the girl wistfully then they both turned their attention back to the teacher.

"I want two groups of two. We are going to have games of two on two." He said looking sternly over the group, "I want girl boy pairings, there are no cooties here. I expect to see you in your groups and at a basketball net in 60 seconds. Go!" the coach turned to the list in front of him and started doing the attendance.

"But I don't wanna be with Derek.." wined Emily smiling, "He has cooties and never showers."

"Oh shut up partner, I should be more worried with all the smelly shampoos you wear!" said Derek pushing her. She got up pretending to be angry and went to get a basketball. Derek turned to Mike who was looking around for a partner, "Why don't you ask Amber?"

"Sure, I guess.." he said jogging over to where Amber was talking to two other girls.

"Awe that was sweet Derek, maybe you do have a soft side." Joked Emily walking up to him watching Mike ask Amber to join their team. She could tell Amber liked Mike because she had kept looking at him before and was now blushing and playing with her hair as he talked to her. As much as she disliked Amber for the whole bathroom raid and her choice of friends she thought they looked adorable together.

The basketball game wasn't that bad and Emily found out that Amber wasn't completely horrible at sports. Although Derek and Emily crushed Mike and Amber it looked like Mike was going to get the courage to ask her out. After the game Derek started to walk over to Mike but Emily grabbed his arm.

"What do you think your doing?" she hissed under her breath.

"Going to talk to Mike?" he whispered back questioningly.

"No! He is going to ask her you idiot! Come on!" said before she practically dragged Derek off the court.


	8. Chapter 8

For almost two weeks after those days things took to a pattern for Emily; during the morning she concentrated and worked hard at Science and Geography ignoring Josh's occasional glares. Emily would either spend lunch talking with JJ while Spencer read or playing football with Jake, Derek, Mike and some of the football team. It annoyed her slightly that Derek was hovering but she tried not to let it show. Emily didn't really take Kelly's offer seriously plus she thought Jake was kind of cool. He wasn't as self absorbed as most of the other players and she enjoyed talking with him. For English class her and JJ would talk the whole time, occasionally listening to the teacher. Gym was Emily's favorite time of day, since Mike partnered mostly with Amber now her and Derek ended up being partners; she loved trying out new sports and sometimes beating Derek at them. For the most part she loved High School and had lots of fun; the other parts were spent either avoiding conflict or protecting her family.

Emily walked down the hall mentally cussing herself while Spencer walked beside her with his head down.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid.' She thought over and over. In Science that morning Spencer had gotten paired up with Josh for a lab and things had not gone well. She should have told the teacher, or volunteered to be Josh's partner or do something to protect Spencer. This was all her fault.

She didn't know what had exactly happened but Spencer had been nervous and knocked a test tube of liquid all over Josh's pants making it look like he had wet himself. Josh had gotten up and everyone but himself, Spencer, Emily, and the teacher had started laughing. Emily knew Josh blamed Spencer and would do something, so Spencer was not getting out of her sights for 2 seconds.

Spencer was walking beside Emily thinking about how clumsy he was. He should have been more careful. It was all his fault.

He had been nervous with Josh and when he reached for the notes he had clumsily knocked the test tube, and it had fallen onto Josh. Now Josh was going to get him. He shivered remembering the words Josh has muttered to him while everyone laughed, 'I'll get you for this.' Spencer really didn't want to know Josh's way of getting even and unconsciously moved closer to Emily.

The pair was about to walk into the caff when Derek grabbed Emily by the shoulder. She turned around to see Derek looking exasperated.

"What happened? Everyone is saying something happened between Josh and you two during Science and he is pissed. He just stormed out the front doors so I wouldn't go that way."

Emily didn't respond but instead bit her lip nervously. It surprised them both when Spencer started to talk but it was hard to hear while he looked at the ground.

"I spilled some distilled water on his pants. He said he is going to get me, and it's all my fault." His voice cracked on the last word. It took a second for Derek to process what Spencer was saying but when he did he clenched his fists. Josh couldn't go around threatening his family. Derek was about to say something but Emily cut him off shooting him a warning look.

"Spencer, he is not going to get you, Derek and I will watch you. He's a coward he won't come at us when we are in a group." She said soothingly.

Spencer sighed and looked up. His brown eyes looked too sad and troubled for a 12 year old and Emily couldn't bear to see him like this so she tried to cheer him up.

"Remember tomorrow after school? You and I are going to go play with the chess team!" she smiled to try and sound exited, but frankly she didn't want to go play chess with a bunch of boys who were so nervous they barely looked at her. She watched Spencer's eyes lighten a bit and she grabbed his hand. "Let's go eat some lunch!"

That lunch Emily decided not to go play football but stay in the crowded caff with most of the students. The rest of the day was uneventful like the family had hoped and Derek got Eric to pick them up after school just to be extra careful.

That night, Derek lay in his bed staring at the ceiling. He was too worried to sleep. He laughed to himself, Emily was right he did worry too much but he couldn't help it. One of the toughest kids in school was picking on his little brother and sister. He knew that if Josh tried anything Emily would fight him but that was what he was worried about.

He loved his little sister and she was tough, but she did reckless things sometimes. That time when he had broken up the fight with Emily and Josh they had almost been to the point of fist fighting. She had been willing to go up against two guys who were both bigger then her, to try and give Spencer a chance to run away. He admired her courage but that wasn't her job, it was his. HE had to protect them. HE was the older brother. If she had gotten hurt protecting Spencer it would have been HIS fault. It was his job to protect his family and he felt like he was failing it.

He decided he was going to have to keep watch over Spencer AND Emily, at least until Josh got over this and chose someone else to pick on. He was still thinking about a plan to watch over them when he fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

The next day Emily sat down at the side of the football field watching the game. Derek had taken Spencer out for lunch and had made her promise to watch, not play football at lunch. In a moment of weakness she had agreed. She hated being babied. From the ways Mike and Jake kept looking over to see where she was she guessed they were assigned to babysit her.

This was so boring! She really wanted to play! She flopped onto her back dramatically and closed her eyes. She tried to think positive, on the bright side Kelly and her friends weren't sitting in the stands gossiping while pretending to be interested in the game like usual. She kept her eyes closed when someone approached her knowing it wasn't Josh because they're Geo teacher had kept him in for lunch.

"Oh no! I think its dead!" she heard Jake say playfully. She felt the toe of a shoe nudge her ribs. "Phewf! Now I don't have to buy her a cookie!" Emily's eyes opened.

"No! Don't try and back out of that one!" she said trying to sound serious.

"Well, I didn't think zombies liked cookies.. but fine." He smiled and his eyes sparkled. He stuck his hand down to offer her a hand up. She looked at it and then grabbed his hand and tripped him. He landed with an 'Oof!' onto the grass beside her.

"What was that for?" he whined while he looked over at her. She started laughing and answered,

"That. Was for threatening not to buy me a cookie." She replied laying back down onto the grass, "So when am I getting said cookie?"

"How about no-" he was interrupted when the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. He paused for a second then continued, "Tomorrow at lunch?"

"I can't I have to go to chess club with Spence.." She frowned and he looked at her expression.

"Do you really want to go to that?" he asked confused.

"Nope," she replied honestly, "but Spencer's in some trouble right now with someone so Derek and I need to be extra careful and watch his back..."

"Oh... That's why Derek wanted Mike and I to watch y-" he stopped when he saw her close her eyes in frustration. "What?"

"I don't need babysitting." She mumbled angrily eyes still closed. She knew it was unreasonable to get mad at Derek for trying to protect her but HE was being unreasonable! She was 16 she didn't need a babysitter! She guessed before that they were watching her but hearing it made her angry. She was perfectly capable of protecting herself. She was going to give Derek a piece of her mind next time she saw him.

Josh didn't really want to get stuck in a family battle so he changed the subject.

"So, do you want to meet tomorrow in the caff?" he asked

"I'm not sure.. besides, won't Kelly be mad you're buying another woman a cookie?" She placed her hand on her forehead dramatically and acted shocked. She put on a show so he wouldn't suspect a thing but she was pretty sure Kelly would be pretty mad with her eating lunch with Jake. Jake chuckled and then looked down.

"Were on a break..." he mumbled. Emily stopped laughing immediately and put a hand on his arm in a comforting gesture.

"I'm so sorry," she said, when he was sad he reminded her of Spencer she had to do something to make them smile again, "Hey, you know what Spencer's a big boy, he can go to chess with Derek. I'll meet you tomorrow okay?" Emily tried not to smile at the thought of Derek going to chess club with Spencer.

Jake looked up and smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Emily decided to get his mind off of it so she took out her phone and passed it to him. He entered his number silently and she did the same when he handed her his phone.

"I'll see you tomorrow Jake! I'll text you before lunch!" she said turning around and walking away. Jake watched her walk away. He remembered that Derek had said to walk her to class, but with the reaction she had before to being babied he decided against it.

Emily was walking through the halls thinking about what she was going to say to JJ. She guessed that Kelly would blame her for the "break'' since she hadn't listened to her warning and was friends with Jake; she was going to have to watch her back. She already knew Kelly was spreading rumors about her, but honestly they didn't bother her, besides nobody believed them anyway. After this break with Jake and when Kelly realized that rumors didn't bother Emily then she was probably going to move onto something else and Emily had to be ready for it.

Emily walked slowly and close to the lockers so it surprised her when someone slammed into her with such force she was knocked back into the lockers. She hit the locker on the side and immediately turned around to tell off whoever did that.

"What the hell is y-" she stopped when she noticed she was staring into the hateful brown eyes of Josh. She quickly changed her tactic, "What do you want Josh."

"Nothing just trying to walk through the halls, maybe you should look where you're going." He said and it sounded too smart a comeback to come from his mouth; he didn't usually fight with words. She wondered if he had been planning knocking into her and saying that.

"Kind of hard with you bulldozing your way through the halls." She retorted walking past his glare to English. She walked quickly making sure not to look back. She only let her guard down and let out the breath she had been holding when she was seated beside JJ.

That night Emily pulled up her sleeve and saw an ugly purple and blue bruise on her arm from slamming into the lockers. It looked like it was the size of a golf ball. She clenched her teeth; Josh was going to get it.

Silently fuming Emily made her way to the kitchen to get some ice. After getting her ice she slammed the freezer door hard enough to alert Derek who was sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Somebody's a grump-" Derek started to sing but stopped when he saw her arm. "What happened?"

"Nothing." She retorted flopping on the couch.

"Jake and Mike are going to get it tomorrow. I TOLD them not to let you play football!" Emily watched as he muttered angrily to himself. When he saw her looking at him eyebrow raised he turned his rage to her, "I told you that you shouldn't play football Emily! The guys are twice your size and next time it could be more then a bruise! I c-"

"Three things Derek." She said annoyed that he was telling her off. "One, I DID not hurt myself playing football, nor did I even play today to make YOU happy. Two, do not lecture me, I can do whatever the hell I want. Three, if you ever ask someone to babysit me again I will punch you out."

Derek ignored the last two points and looked at the bruise on her arm again.

"Then what happened to your arm." He asked. Emily deliberated over her answer long enough to become suspicious. Emily was considering her options. On one hand, if she told him he would probably do something to get back at Josh BUT he would probably try and watch over her the rest of her life and set up MORE babysitters. On the other hand, if she didn't tell him she wouldn't be babysat and would be allowed to play football in peace BUT she would have to take on Josh on her own. She weighed more pros and cons before she finally decided.

"Fell." She replied and she turned back to the TV trying to ignore him as he tried to read her face.

Derek stared at his sister's face waiting for her to elaborate. He sat there for almost a minute before he realized she wasn't going to answer.

"Emily, what really happened?" he asked. She ignored him and continued watching TV and he drew his eyebrows together. He knew she didn't fall; you didn't get a bruise like that from falling. He decided to try another tactic, "Emily I know you're mad I asked the guys to watch you and not let you play football, but can you please tell me what happened?"

When she looked over he gave her puppy eyes but her expression became unreadable.

"Derek I fell. Let it go."

Both of the children knew that the other wasn't going to give up easily. Though they weren't related by blood they seemed to share the personality trait of being stubborn. Each kid made a vow to themselves, Emily to not tell Derek what happened, and Derek to find out.

"Are you serious?" laughed Emily as Jake told her a story the next day at lunch.

"I am completely serious in landed right in his face, just like in the movies!"

"That's crazy, nothing like that really happens at our house." Said Emily smiling as she took a bite of her cookie. The cafeteria was pretty empty since it was a nice day out but there was no football game because most of the boys were on a field trip with the soccer team.

They sat in comfortable silence for some time while Emily ate her cookie and Jake ate his sandwich.

"So are you back together with Kelly?" she asked curiously, he had seemed so sad the day before.

"Nope.. I'm hoping that we will get back together at my party this weekend." He said not looking too hopeful. Emily placed her hand to her chest in mock horror.

"A party? And you didn't invite ME?" Jake laughed before he asked,

"Didn't you get the invite? I gave Kelly a list and she said she would take care of it.." He frowned.

"Oh it's fine, she probably just forgot.." she lied quickly and changed the subject, "So when is this party?"

"It's at my house on Friday, starts at 6. I'll text you my address."

"Can I bring Derek and Spencer?" Jake thought over it for long enough to make Emily raise her eyebrow.

"Yeah sure, if they want to.."

"I'm not sure Spencer will come but will there be girls?" asked Emily. Jake was puzzled by the question but nodded anyway. "Then Derek will be there."

They both laughed and continued joking for the rest of lunch.


	10. Chapter 10

Spencer knew that things were awkward between Emily and Derek at home but he couldn't quite figure out why. He thought maybe they didn't like High School but even HE liked it. In fact he loved High school; all of the teachers were really nice, he got to learn a lot more then in tutoring and he liked hanging out with Emily and JJ or Derek and Mike. He had tried to ask Derek the night before what was wrong but he had said nothing and changed the subject, which had made Spencer even more suspicious. He was starting to wonder if something serious was going on and was wondering if he should be worried. The next day in Science Spencer had resolved to ask Emily.

"Hey Emily," asked Spencer nervously as they filled out papers on animal cells.

"Mmhmm?" she responded not looking up. Spencer tried to think of a way to ask smoothly but couldn't so he just asked directly.

"Why are you and Derek mad at each other?" Emily stopped writing and looked up to see Spencer curious but scared eyes looking at her.

"Nothing serious Spencer, I'm just mad at him for being overprotective. You don't need to worry about anything." She said reassuringly.

"Can I do anything to help?" he asked, he didn't like fighting. He closed his eyes and went still and thought of when he was little. He could still hear his father's voice shouting, his mother's crying. Suddenly he wasn't in the classroom anymore.

He was in the corner of his basement hiding behind a couch. He could hear his dad's drunken voice shouting at him,

"Spencer! You shtoopid kid! Whar the hell arrre you!" He heard the bottle smash against the wall across the room. He could smell the alcohol everywhere. He couldn't hear his mother's sobs from upstairs anymore so he guessed she was passed out drunk. His dad stepped closer to the chair. He stopped breathing. The footsteps got closer. He counted their heavy footfalls getting closer. One. Two. Three.

He snapped back to real life when Emily shook him.  
"Spencer! Your right here, its fine, it's okay." She relaxed after he blinked and focused on her. He looked like he was going to cry. Emily grabbed him in a hug, "It's okay Spencer, your right here."

She looked around the classroom quickly and was thankful nobody saw. She didn't know what had happened to Spencer as a kid because when she had asked Eric had said he didn't want to talk about it. Inside she knew there was nothing she could do to help and that –whatever it was- would be with Spencer for the rest of his life.

When Spencer stopped shaking she let him go and talked to him. 

"You okay Spence?" 

"Yeah fine.." mumbled Spence looking down. Emily let it go, knowing there were times to pry and others to let it go. 

Emily watched Spencer all through the rest of Science and Geography. He seemed better by lunch, but Emily still kept a cautious eye on him even while she talked to JJ.

"So are you going to Jakes party on Friday?" asked Emily not really paying attention. 

"Oh ya! I'm arriving at the party on my pet dinosaur and wearing my birthday suit, how about you?" asked JJ sarcastically.

"Yeah me too.. Wait what?" asked Emily turning to her friend in confusion. JJ laughed at Emily's expression. 

"Well, you just agreed to come to Jakes party naked with me." Smiled JJ. 

"Well how else would I start a new fashion trend?" joked Emily cracking a smile. 

"But alas," said JJ dramatically placing her hand on her forehead, "I can't go, that's the night of my soccer teams banquet.. You will have to go alone.." 

"Awe that's too bad.." mumbled Emily disappointed, now she had to go alone. Sure she was going with Derek but once he saw a pretty girl he was going to be gone for the rest of the night.

"Hey Emily.." they both turned when they heard the quiet voice and looked at Spencer. 

"Yes Spencer?" asked Emily cautiously putting a comforting hand on his arm. 

"I volunteered to help our Science teacher organize the classroom after school, and I was wondering if you could come to." It was obvious he was scared. She didn't know what had been so bad in his childhood but it had been bad enough to make him a scared, quiet and outspoken boy with no confidence.

"No problem Spence, let me just tell Derek." She smiled at him before pulling out her phone and pressing speed dial.

"Derek." It answered on the third ring. 

"Hey Derek, Spencer volunteered us to help our teacher after school, so when Eric comes to pick you up can you tell him that we will walk?" 

"You guys can't walk home alone." 

"I wasn't asking your permission Derek I was t-e-l-l-i-n-g you. Bye." 

"Wait!" yelled Derek into the phone. Emily exhaled sharply, thoroughly angry off. "I'm going to go to the sports store after school anyway. I can come back to the school after and we can all walk home together."

Emily rolled her eyes. This was getting old. Quickly.

"Fine Derek, meet us outside the school at the park at 4:00. Bye."

"Bye!" 

Emily and Spencer walked out of the school at 3:45 and waited in the park. Emily had thought helping out would have taken longer, but Spencer had been really good and fast at organizing all the books; she had barely had to help. She didn't bother calling Derek because, knowing him, he was already on his way back.

Emily laid back down on the slide and closed her eyes. She could feel the sun on her skin; she loved this time of year. Spencer was drawing a clock in the sand using a stick.

Spencer finished his clock and looked at it proudly. He checked his wrist watch, it was right on time. Turning around to tell Emily he noticed three boys coming their way. One of them was Josh, another was Alex and there were one other whom he recognized from the cafeteria.

He immediately called to Emily and his voice made her eyes snap open. He silently pointed behind her and she looked back. When she saw who was coming she walked over to Spencer and whispered that they would wait for Derek somewhere else.

They walked quietly towards the parking lot so they could go wait at the front of the school. Spencer could hear the three boys following them but he hoped they just happened to be going the same way. Emily was thinking of a plan, if they made it to the front of the school or the road there would be people, or cameras, to witness or stop the fight she guessed was coming. 

They could both hear the footsteps gaining on them but they didn't look back, it wasn't until they were a couple feet away from turning to the front of the school when Josh called out. 

"Hey!" neither responded, if anything they sped up. When they were closer a forth boy came around the corner from the front of the school and they both stopped.

Spencer looked to Emily and she had a calculating look on her face. The boy came closer and Emily took a step back. Spencer looked at the situation, behind them was a wall and to their front and sides were four boys closing in.

Emily took a step closer to Spencer. She stepped halfway in front of him and backed them up closer to the wall. She knew she could outrun these guys and get away but she couldn't leave Spencer here. Her plan was to distract them long enough to get Spencer to run away and get help.  
The boys stopped when they were all about 5 feet away from Spencer and Emily. They all stood there and Emily looked directly at Josh.

"Hey Josh, fancy meeting you here." She said casually inching closer to Spencer.

"Yeah, I was in the neighbourhood." He replied sarcastically.

Spencer looked at Emily and Josh and started shaking. It reminded him too much of.. 'No.' he thought to himself 'Don't do that here Spencer' but he couldn't help it.

His mother had been in front of him yelling at his dad. He hadn't heard what they were yelling about because he had had his hands over his ears and his eyes crying uncontrollably. Then suddenly his dad had advanced on his mother and slapped her. She had run away and left Spencer alone, with his dad.

His dad had turned his anger to a 6 year old Spencer yelling at him for being weak and crying before smacking him across the face and leaving an ugly hand mark.

Emily looked back at Spencer to see him frozen and pale faced. She knew he wasn't there anymore. She stepped on his toe sharply with her heel to get him back to the present. She tried to continue her conversation as long as possible with Josh in hope someone would come help.

"We were just helping our teacher organize her books. What keeps you at school this late?" she asked trying to keep her tone light.

"Hanging around and waiting." He said and she knew that it would be hard to get Spencer away. She looked back at him and his eyes seemed focused. She looked off into the distance at a bird and when Josh looked back to see what she was looking at she leaned back and whispered.

"Run Spencer." Before turning around and punching Josh in the face. She felt her fist connect with his nose and she could almost hear it break.

Once she threw the first punch things jumped into action; Alex went and grabbed Spencer who was trying to run away as the two boys went after Emily and Josh held his nose. Emily looked over to see Alex pinning Spencer against the wall and cursed. She looked back to see the two guys advancing on her. She knew they were going to get her but she was going to leave a mark on their face.

The two guys split up one coming at her from behind and one from the front. She decided taking down one was success enough. She ran at his and punched him in the face. She winced when she felt his fist connect with her stomach. She felt the other try and grab her from behind and she kicked back with her leg. She tackled the first guy to the ground and when she was about to punch him in the face got grabbed from behind by Josh and the other guy.

Even though she was thrashing and hit them once or twice she was soon being restrained by the two guys and Josh, who was smirking. When the other two had her under control he stepped back and looked at her.

"I win." He said simply. She glared at him.

"You're a coward Josh. Take me on alone; I'll kick your ass!" She spat.

He punched her in the jaw.

"That, is for breaking my nose bitch." He snarled. She spat blood onto the ground. She glared at him and spoke again her voice acidic.

"You're just a weak bully Josh." He punched her in the gut and she let out a painful breath.

"I wouldn't be talking if I were you." He said smirking loving his power. She knew this was just going to get worse and she needed help. When she regained her breath she started yelling.

"SOMEBODY HELP! HELP US! HE-" She was cut off when someone put a hand over her mouth. She bit the hand and started screaming again but was kneed in the gut.

"Shut up!" yelled Josh.

"Make me." Coughed Emily trying to regain enough breath to yell again.

"Yell one more time and I'll hurt Spencer." Emily stopped and looked up at him.

"You touch Spencer and I will make it my life goal to kick your butt Josh." She replied icily.

"Don't threaten me!" he yelled infuriated and she closed her eyes when she saw his fist coming at her face.

She waited but instead of the pain she heard a grunt and then the two who held her let go. She opened her eyes and saw Josh being tackled by Derek with Mike and Jake taking on the other two. While those 6 were occupied she ran over to Alex who still gripped Spencer. She ran and tackled him to the ground and in the haste he let go of Spencer.

They rolled on the floor fighting each trying to hold the other down. Emily got the upper hand but when she almost had him he flipped her off and pinned her. He sat on top of her kneeling on her legs and holding down both her arms with his hands and panting. She glared up.

"You are going to regret doing that." He said between pants and in response Emily spit into his face.

Jake pinned the other guy against the wall with his arm across the guy's throat.

"Get out of here." He said menacingly. When he let go the kid ran. Jake turned around to see Alex punch Emily on the side of the head. He ran over immediately forgetting Derek and Mike. Jake practically picked him up by his shirt and threw him on the ground beside Emily. The guy got up and, seeing that the others were gone and Mike and Derek were coming to back up Jake, he ran. 

Emily put her arm over her head, closed her eyes and groaned. Her head was throbbing. She tried to think of when she might have hit it but the fight was a blur.

"Emily you okay?" she heard Derek ask as he kneeled beside her. She was about to tell him she was fine when something occurred to her.

"Where's Spence?" she asked opening her eyes and sitting up. She saw Derek kneeling beside her and Jake who was standing staring down at her worriedly. She looked over and saw Spencer sitting in a ball in the corner with Mike trying to talk to him. She started to get up but Derek put a hand on her shoulder, and she was so tired it prevented her from getting up.

"Ems stay still. Where does it hurt?" asked Derek in a monotone. She pushed his hand of her shoulder and went over to check on Spencer ignoring his question. She sat down beside Spencer and touched his shoulder. She ignored Derek, Jake, and Mike as they all watched.

"You okay Spence?" She asked quietly in the most soothing voice she could muster. He nodded but he looked really pale. She quietly helped him up and then looked to Derek.

"So you ready to go home?" she asked and Derek's mouth actually fell open in shock.

Derek was furious. Jake and Mike had gone to the store with him and when they had gotten back to the school they had heard Emily screaming. They had run around the corner of the school in time to see Emily, pinned to a wall with a swollen jaw and coughing up blood, about to be punched in the face. He looked at her now, he face was swollen in the cheek and around her jaw, she had a black eye, she was bleeding out her mouth, she was wobbling while trying to stand still and she just wanted to forget this and go HOME? He was too shocked to say anything but when he could he was angry.

"You want to go home?" he asked incredulously. "Don't you want to report this to the police, to the school, maybe go to a HOSPITAL?"

"No, I want to go home Derek." She replied calmly even though he was yelling.

"I'm calling Eric to pick us up." Said Derek turning on his heel angrily and walking out onto the field.


	11. Chapter 11

Jake looked at Spencer and then at Emily. He made up his mind and turned to Mike.

"Why don't you go take Spencer inside and I'll help Emily?"

"I don't need help." said Emily stubbornly. Jake ignored her completely and continued talking to Mike,

"Just bring him to a water fountain or something to drink water and make sure he doesn't go into shock. Also don't leave him alone, Josh might come back."

Mike looked at Jake not envying his position at all. Emily looked pissed. Once Mike and Spencer had left Emily turned to Jake.

"I don't need help." she repeated.

"Bite me." replied Jake grabbing his water bottle and a tissue from his bag. "Stay still."

Jake expertly washed the blood of her bottom lip and the back of her head. He then checked her arms to see if there was anything more than bruising and was almost certain nothing was broken.

"You should put some ice on your eye and arms... and maybe take an Advil for your head."

"How do you know so much about medical work?" she asked curiously.

"My dad's the head doctor at the hospital, you pick up a lot. It also helps to be able to treat your own injuries in football." He smiled and she smiled back. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful her smile was, especially when she didn't have the walls she had built around her. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Derek coming up behind him.

"Hey, Eric will be here in 5 minutes, let's go wait in the school." said Derek rudely walking past them. Jake looked at Emily for an explanation for his hostility but she just shrugged and followed Derek.

When Eric arrived the first thing he had asked was,

"What happened?" His face had been deadly serious for the second time in his life, the first being his wife's funeral. \

Emily had explained there had been a fight, leaving out names, and that the matter was resolved even though the kids knew better. Eric had insisted Emily go to the doctor and told them they had to report it to the school or the police the next day. It had turned out Emily had a minor concussion, and obviously a lot of bruises. The doctor had said to wake Emily up every 2 hours that night and Derek had taken that job.

Emily was dreaming about being in Gym class, she was running towards the post, she was almost there.. A couple more steps. She swung her leg back to kick the ball and then she fell. The field was shaking she closed her eyes and opened them again. She was in her room with Derek shaking her trying to wake her up.

"Emily get up!" She mumbled something incoherent and pulled the covers over her head. She hoped he would go away and let her sleep, but he didn't. Suddenly the warmth was taken away and she was lying there cold on her bed in her PJ's with the cover on the floor beside her.

She sat up and glared at Derek.

"Jerk." she mumbled getting off the bed and grabbing her covers.

"Not my fault you were idiot enough to take on 3 guys on your own." he replied but without a joking tone. She looked up and Derek's eyes were furious, but she knew that behind them was fear and concern.

"I had no other choice." she replied repeating what she had told him she guessed a thousand times already today. Derek's fury broke and he just looked sad. He sat on the edge of her bed and for the first time actually responded.

"I know."

"You do?" she asked confused trying to read his expression but it was difficult in the dark room.

"I keep thinking about it over and over.." he started staring out the window, "I know what position you were in, and I know you could outrun them. I tried putting myself in your position and I know I would have done the same. It's just.. I should have been there. It's my job to protect Spencer and especially you. You're my sister!"

Emily went over and put her hand on Derek's shoulder.

"Derek it's not your fault. I know it's your tendency to blame everything on yourself but this wasn't your fault. I know you're not going to listen but you have to believe me. Josh would have found Spencer and I anyway, you saved us. If you didn't come when you did I would have been in worse shape than I am now and Spencer would have probably been hurt too."

She saw Derek shudder and hugged him.

"Derek, you did all you could. You're one of the best brothers in the world, got it?" She released the hug and looked into his eyes. There was still pain but there was less than before. "I'm going to go back to bed, see you in 2 hours!" she smiled. Derek smiled, hugged her again and then left to go get some sleep.

The next day at school was awkward. Word had gotten around at the school, like Emily had expected, but she hated how everyone was looking at her funny. She didn't see Josh that whole day and she didn't care. She ignored all the stares and whispers but they secretly bothered her. She was happy when JJ didn't talk about it and waited for Emily to tell her on her own.

Considering what Spencer had been through the last couple of days Emily thought he was doing great. All in all she considered her encounter with Josh a success even if her head still throbbed, not that she would admit that to anyone.


	12. Chapter 12

The next day at school was much the same except for the growing excitement for Jake's party that night. Everywhere Emily went people were talking about what they were going to wear and how they were going to do their makeup. From sitting there listening out of boredom she found out most girls were going to wear dresses. Personally she didn't like dresses; she hated how guys did nothing while girls spent hours choosing an outfit and getting ready. She was going to wear black leggings and a rock and roll t shirt.

She didn't talk to Jake all day since he was constantly surrounded by people asking about his party. Thankfully he remembered to text the details so she didn't have to push her way through his crowd of admirers to find out. By the afternoon the excitement was getting to Emily and she couldn't wait for the party! She hadn't been to a party in a while.

Emily now stood with Derek at the front door of a huge house. Emily had never known how BIG Jakes house was. No wonder he invited half the school, he had enough room for more! A lady who Emily presumed to be Jakes mom let them in and directed them to the back.

Emily looked out and was amazed. There was a giant pool in the middle of the setup, tables along the side of the yard filled with food, beautiful gardens everywhere, and twinkly lights hanging up on beams over everything, even the pool so when you looked up it looked like a starry sky.

Emily followed Derek as he made his way over to the food table. She grabbed something that looked like a mini hotdog and sat down in one of the chairs by the pool. She looked over to the food table and saw Derek talking to a pretty girl that she recognised from English. She checked her watch, 10 minutes, a new record for Derek.

Emily spent about a half hour sitting on the chair eating and watching the party before she decided to go find Jake. She looked around and didn't see Derek so she made her way beside the pool to the house on her own. She was looking down admiring the plants surrounding the pool when someone shoved her from the side into the pool. She felt the cold water soak her clothes and the first thought that crossed her mind, oddly enough, was 'Good thing I didn't wear a dress'.

She swam to the surface of the pool, looked around and noticed Kelly and another girl casually making their way away. She didn't even care that everyone was staring at her, she was focused on getting back at Kelly.

"Hey Kelly!" she yelled across the pool with a sugary sweet voice. When Kelly turned her head Emily continued, "I'm sure by 16 you know your own body weight. Maybe you should be less clumsy; you could seriously hurt someone someday!"

Kelly glared back at her but her face was turning red with embarrassment since everyone was now staring at her. Emily decided to make a show of it, just for fun. She swam to the top of the pool and started doing backstroke from one end to the other.

"I did want to go swimming, but I prefer doing it in a bathing suit." That earned a laugh from some of the people watching. She swam around for a couple minutes and then when other people started to come swimming and attention was off her she got out of the pool and ran into the house.

She walked into the house and she saw Jake talking to his mom. Once they saw her standing at the doorway completely drenched they stopped.

"What happened?" asked Jake in shock. His mother ran off to get her a towel and she started shivering. Jake came over and put an arm around her and rubbed her back to try and keep her warm. "What happened?" he asked again more softly.

"Bitch pushed me into the pool." muttered Emily angrily.

"Who?" he asked looking at her puzzled.

"Kelly." stated Emily between her chattering teeth. Jake said nothing and she wished she could see his face. His mom returned with a towel and he wrapped it around her.

He led her down a hallway to get her some warm clothes. His eyebrows were drawn together and he seemed to be in deep thought. He went into the laundry room and came back with a grey t-shirt and some shorts.

"My mom's stuff wouldn't fit you so here, the might be kind of big, but that's all we

got." he said directing her to a washroom where she could change.

After changing Emily looked at herself in the mirror. She was glad she had no makeup

on so the water hadn't ruined it. She traced her fingers over her eye that wasn't as swollen anymore and the bruises on her arm. She had always been a quick healer and she guessed the bruises would be gone in a couple days.

The clothes Jake lent her were too big but they were okay for now. The red shorts went a little past her knees but she pulled the drawstring on them tight enough so that they didn't fall down. The t-shirt went down a little past her waist but it worked too. She put her hair in a ponytail and tucked in some strands before opening the door.

Jake was sitting down outside the bathroom waiting for her. Once she opened the door he stood up and before she could say anything he was already talking.

"I'm really sorry Emily and this is all my fault." HE ran his hand through his hair. "Kelly wanted to get back together and I told her no because we aren't right for each other and I don't like her that way anymore. She asked if it was someone else and I said maybe and she asked if it was you and I said.. What I mean to say is I kinda like you and I reall-"

He was cut off when Emily kissed him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed

her back and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Derek sat outside on a chair wondering where Emily had gone. He had heard she had been pushed into the pool and was worried about her. The girl he had been talking to, Sydney had gone home but had given him her number. He planned on calling her back on Sunday; he didn't want to come off as desperate. But truth be told he thought she was really nice and couldn't wait.

The thought disappeared from his head when he saw Emily walk out of the house holding hands with Jake and a smile on her face.

He knew everything was alright. Spencer was doing fine and the bully problem was being taken care of since the school tapes showed them acting in self defense and he had started to come to term with his childhood and talked about it, Emily seemed to be happy with Jake and had JJ as a good friend, and he had a possible date Sunday evening and had Mike and Jake as best friends. Things were certainly looking up for them.


End file.
